May 10, 2013
Speaker(s): Professor Nancy Folbre, University of Massachusetts- Amherst
From our locally-owned stores, to our farmer’s markets and food carts, Portland is a leader in the movement to buy local. It’s cultural, it’s trendy, and it’s smart for our local economies. In our increasingly global economy, many communities are trying to encourage local forms of economic development that could generate more stable employment and help build social capital. These community initiatives aim to develop local economies, sustain local forms, generate more stable employment, and build social capital. Small businesses often find them particularly attractive as a way to mobilize local capital and build consumer loyalty. Localism represents a clear alternative- as well as an outright challenge- to more standard economic development strategies, such as tax subsidies to large firms that promise to generate local jobs but sometimes fail to stick around. Can localism go global, and move beyond its niche in relatively upscale neighborhoods and college towns? What can we learn from "best practices" in communities across the country?

Nancy Folbre is Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and a regular contributor to the New York Times Economix blog. Her most recent edited book, published by the Russell Sage Foundation, is entitled For Love and Money: Care Provision in the U.S. She has published numerous books and articles analyzing the importance of family and community work and its contributions to economic development.

We are pleased to join with Portland State University and The Vatter Memorial Lecture to bring Nancy Folbre to the City Club of Portland. The Vatter Memorial Lecture was established in 2006 to honor PSU Professor of Economics Harold Goodhue Vatter. Vatter was a pioneer of New Economic History. By integrating economic theory with history, Vatter achieved a level of thinking on par with the greats. He taught at several universities, including the University of Chicago and Oregon State University, before coming to Portland State University in 1965. He passed away September 8, 2000 at the age of 89.